Jay Klokker: a poem

Time Machine

For Iliana

After you told me your teacher is making you write poems

you showed me the dirt-flecked grey Olympia portable

you got for free at the second-hand store and while we

rethreaded the red-and-black typewriter ribbon and tested

the keys (all working except the plus sign) the words

carriage return sent me back to the

left-hand margin of early adulthood Colorado

where I was last seen sitting on the floor

hunched over my almost-brand-new

grey Olympia portable typewriter clacking away

at what I still hope will turn out to be a poem.

Originally from the Seattle area of the US, Jay Klokker now lives ninety miles north of New York City in the small college town of New Paltz. He studied poetry writing at the University of Washington and Boston University, where he received his Masters degree. After recently retiring from a career of teaching English as a Second Language to immigrant adults, he has been concentrating on the writing of poems and speculative fiction. His poems have appeared in a number of literary journals, including Agni, One Hand Clapping, The Beloit Poetry Journal, and Shark Reef.